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Vol. 133 No. 46 16 Pages 2 Sections 50 Cents COVERING THE COMMERCE AREA SINCE 1875 Big New Year's Party Is Tonight The Commerce Area Business Association will throw a huge New Year’s party tonight (Wednesday). The group expects upwards of 400 people to turn out to the Commerce Civic Center for its annu al New Year’s party and dance. It’s expected to be the biggest New Year’s party in Northeast Georgia, and the CABA hopes it will be a profitable fund-raiser as well. The Jesters, an Athens group that grew into prominence in the 1960s and has both a wide rep ertoire and a local follow ing, will provide the music from 8:30 to 12:30. Tickets are $25 per person at the door. It’s a BYOB event, with setups, decorations and light hors d’oeuvres provided. No one under age 21 will be admitted. Dinner Too The CABA will also offer a pre-party dinner in the Commerce Room of the civic center, catered by Kay Daniels of the Telford-Burns House. It starts at 6:30, but reser vations have been closed out. THURSDAY, JAN. 1 Sunny: Low, 34; high, 47; 0% chance rain FRIDAY, JAN. 2 Showers: Low, 30; high, 52; 60% chance rain SATURDAY, JAN. 3 Sunny: Low, 30; high, 52; 0% chance rain SUNDAY, JAN. 4 Sunny: Low, 34; high, 53; 0% chance rain Reservoir Levels Commerce: 698.1 (.5 feet above full) Bear Creek: 694.23 (.77 feet below full) Rainfall this month 5.12 inches Rainfall This Year 47.64 Inches INDEX Births 4B Church News 7A Classified Ads 6-7B Calendar 3 A Crime News 6A News Roundup 2A Obituaries 8A Opinions 4-5A School News 5B Sports 1-3B Social News 4B Legislature Convenes Jan. 12 Rep. Benton: No Punishment From Speaker JACK! AREA CH District 31 Rep. Tommy Benton says Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson has promised there will be no repercussions for the 25 House members — including Benton — who support ed Rep. David Ralston over Richardson in the Republican Caucus. By Mark Beardsley It appears that State Rep. Tommy Benton (R-District 31) will suffer no ramifica tions from his support for a challenger to Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson. Benton backed Rep. David Ralston’s bid to unseat Richardson, who was a lightning rod for criticism of the Georgia House of Representatives last year. Richardson prevailed 75-25 in the Republican Caucus. Benton met recently with Richardson. “I just went by and told him where I was coming from and there wasn’t any thing personal about it,” Benton said. “He told me there was not going to be any repercussions against us, that we would keep the same committees and offic es.” Benton is secretary of the Education Committee and serves on the Environmental, National Resources and Transportation committees. “I was surprised,” he said of Richardson’s comments. Benton also said Richardson indicated he may be a lower profile speaker of the House this year. “He made the statement he was going to stay away from legislation,” said Benton. Richardson created a firestorm of controversy last year with his GREAT Plan to eliminate property taxes. The plan was eventu ally killed. The legislature will have enough to do without cre ating new controversy. It must cut the state budget to accommodate reduced revenue from an economy in recession. The 2009 session begins Monday, Jan. 12, and while the budget is always a chal lenge, this year could be brutal. “Instead of us going in and trying to find money for different projects, we’re going to be looking to cut everything not just absolute ly essential,” said Benton. “There will be a lot of look ing at what the state govern ment needs to be doing.” Benton points out that funding for education “does not meet our (state) obliga tion” and expressed some hope that this year might be the time to renew that com mitment. At the same time, he said, “something has got to be done in the medical area.” While both the House and Senate appropriations committees are already at work, the real starting point Cont. on Page 3A Commerce Joins Natural Gas Marketing Effort 2008: Looking Back One of the more gripping images of 2008: Commerce residents line the streets as the body of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Shaun Whitehead was escorted through town. Whitehead, who was killed April 24, was Jackson County’s first Iraq War fatality. Photo by Ben Munro What Else? The Economy Is Top Story Of The Year ForeclosuresBankruptcies, Budget Cuts Bring National Economy Home To Jackson As 2008 slips into the history books, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what it will be remem bered for. 2008 will go down in history as the year the economy tanked, beginning the worst recession since the Great Depression. From record numbers of mortgage foreclosures to the closing of businesses, the economy made not just the national and state news, but played a huge role on Main Street as well. Thus the economy is ranked the Number 1 story in The Commerce News during 2008. For years, growth has been a Top 5 story in the pages of The Commerce News, but that stopped abruptly this year as developers began shutting down and foreclosures picked up, particularly in the third quarter. Locally, Simpson Brick and Norcross Electric Service (NES) closed local opera tions. Louisiana Pacific announced a shutdown. Business at the Jackson County Planning & Development office trick led to a stop, and few building permits are being issued anywhere. It didn’t help any that gasoline prices hit $4.50 a gallon, but even when prices fell after the General Election, the economy was in a deep funk. Overall, foreclosures in Jackson County were up 57 percent. Local governments, like local businesses, are cutting back. Commerce has implemented spend ing and hiring freezes, schools are bracing for more state funding cuts and city and county gov ernments are seeing their sales tax revenue fall. Number 2: BJC Medical Center The Number 2 story is directly related. BJC Medical Center’s for tunes are closely tied to the economy, and by the end of the year, the BJC Medical Center Authority found itself trying to find a buyer for a beleaguered institution. Things began to go downhill when the hos pital’s general surgeon, Dr. Keith Ash, resigned in May, but the economy was already turning black ink into red for the facili ty. With fewer people hav ing insurance — or even jobs — an already-stressed facility found itself with a lot of uncollectible debt. In fact, the most recent audit is several months overdue as BJC officials and the auditor dicker over just how much bad debt there is. That, in turn, could weigh heavily on the hospital’s chances of lur ing a “partner” to take over the facility and build a new hospital. A new group, Doctors Hospital of Georgia, has expressed an interest in acquiring BJC and building a new hospital on the Maysville Road pending a close look at the facility, includ ing its financial status. Number 3: New High School At Number 3 is the construction — or lack thereof — of the new Commerce High School. Originally scheduled for a groundbreaking in late spring, the project was delayed yet again, this time by controversy over the construction of the gymnasium (s) for the Cont. on Page 5A By Mark Beardsley Commerce’s Gas Department has joined a nationwide coalition to promote the use of natural gas for home heating and home water heating. The Council for Responsible Energy Use (CRE) advocates the use of natural gas over electricity as a “green” approach to energy use. It is made up of 190 energy suppliers. Commerce’s gas system was established in the 1950s. It has more than 2,300 customers in four counties (Banks, Clarke, Jackson and Madison). It is also the city’s most prof itable enterprise, although the closing of the Louisiana Pacific OSB plant in Center put a dent in sales. “Energy is high on the list of consumer concerns these days, and when you consider our nation’s eco nomic situation, there’s never been a better time to help educate consum ers about value, benefits, and savings of natural gas,” said natural gas superin tendent Jim Eubanks in a news release from CRE. “Natural gas is the sensible and responsible energy choice for certain applica tions, like home and water It’s not too early to be thinking about what to do with your Christmas tree when the holidays are over. Keep Jackson County Beautiful will offer Bring One for the Chipper Christmas tree recycling at the following locations from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Jan. 3. Those who drop a tree off can pick up a seedling for their yard from volunteers. The locations are: • Arcade — City Hall heating, and our associa tion with the Council for Responsible Energy will help us get the word out.” Associating with CRE gives Commerce access to campaign materials pro moting the benefits of natu ral gas and featuring HGTV host Carter Oosterhouse. CRE will provide informa tion on creating more ener gy efficient homes with out sacrificing comfort or quality, its Web site — www. ComfortableResponsible. org — offers information on the benefits of natural gas for homes and busi nesses, and in the near future the Web site will offer a “carbon calculator” so consumers can assess the carbon footprints of their residences. According to CRE, the carbon footprint of a home utilizing natural gas for heating and heating water is 46 percent smaller than that of a home using elec tricity for the same pur poses. “Many studies have shown that the use of nat ural gas appliances can deliver on global climate change objectives now and over the long term,” says Cont. on Page 3A • Commerce — Lanier Tech/Badcock Center. (However, trees put out on the curb by city residents will also wind up as mulch, ground up with leaves and other yard wastes at the old city dump.) • Braselton/Hoschton - Towne Center •Jackson County Transfer Station on County Farm Road •Jefferson — Civic Center •Nicholson — City Hall • Talmo — Fire Station Group Asks Citizens To Recycle Christmas Trees